New spot on Henderson Avenue will honor one of Dallas’ first beer bars, Mayer’s Garden

If news reports didn’t confirm its existence, Mayer’s Garden would sound like something out of a fairy tale.

The open-air drinking place opened in 1881, according to the Dallas Morning News archives, and is known as a “free amusement garden” on Elm Street in Dallas with live music, variety shows and a zoo of lions, tigers, eagles and boa Constrictors described.

A picture from the “Dallas Morning News” from 1924 shows the famous Mayer’s Garden, which is known as the “amusement park”.(DMN archive)

Aside from one unfortunate moment in 1886 (when a turtle allegedly bit the finger of a child), the archived news describes Mayer’s Garden as the best hangout spot in Dallas. There was music seven nights a week, “and the beer from the saloon in front of the building flowed unhindered while the clinking glasses stayed in time with the music,” says a lyrical paragraph from a 1918 news report.

“All walks of life came to the garden,” read a news report from 1932. “The heads of the best families took their wives and children to these conversations to see the zoo and have ice cream and other refreshments that were served on the tables below the trees. “

An 1885 paid advertisement boasted that Mayer’s Garden served “the best meals in Dallas.”

About 140 years later, Dallas restaurateurs Austin Rodgers and Garrett Mayer plan to open Mayer’s Garden on Henderson Avenue instead of a shuttered Jake’s Burger. The history of the beer garden appealed to you, and the name is a happy coincidence: Garrett Mayer is not related to Simon Mayer, the brewer who founded this popular “pleasure resort” more than a century ago.

The new Mayer’s Garden is expected to open in September 2021.

Rodgers runs the Alamo Club, a restaurant, and a bar in Dallas’ Lowest Greenville. He was inspired to come up with a historic Texan name for this new bar and “there was no going back” when he and Mayer found out about the free-roaming pub from the 1880s.

The two plan to take the part of the name “garden” literally and to place plants inside and outside the bar and restaurant. The former burger shop already had a large terrace that Rodgers and Mayer like to use.

Austin Rodgers and Garrett Mayer plan to keep the industrial bones of the building’s earlier life as Jake’s Burgers, but they want to bring in the outdoors by keeping the seven garage doors open and adding lots of plants.(Brandon Wade / special article)

It has seven garage doors that open onto the terrace. “Our goal is, can we keep these doors open 365 days a year?” Rodgers says.

Mayer’s Garden (pronounced MY-yuhrs, like Oscar Meyer) will have 24/7 food, although there will be a strong focus on drinks. The cooperation partners also want Mayer’s Garden to be a fun place for game days and a place where large groups can eat and drink.

Rodgers moved to Henderson Avenue because of the success they saw in other bars, such as the new Irish pub Spider Murphy’s (which is run by the same group that runs The Old Monk and The Skellig that also operate Henderson lie); and the fun vibes in neighboring stores like High Fives and The Whip.

Rodgers agrees the pandemic was challenging: the Alamo Club closed four times in a calendar year. But during that time, Rodgers also felt confident enough to start shopping for a second venue.

“It was still a little nerve-wracking,” says Rodgers. “But the longer the conversation, the more excited you get.” The sale at the Alamo Club is now that the pandemic started more than a year ago, in March 2020.

“Greenville Avenue and Henderson Avenue have probably never been healthier,” says Mayer.

Mayer’s Garden is located at 2422 N. Henderson Ave., Dallas. It is expected to open in September 2021.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on Twitter @sblaskovich.

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